The 36-year-old fighter is still in great physical condition but he wants to ensure he is protecting his long-term health by not taking too many punches.

He told Boxing News: “I think this will be my last year of fighting, but you never know – I’ll take it fight by fight.

“But it’s highly likely that this will be my last year of fighting.

“And that’s not because of my body because I’m still performing at my best – it’s just that I don’t want to keep taking more punches than I need to.

“It’s not just the fight nights, it’s the camps as well.

“I want to live a healthy life after boxing, so I’m just a little bit mindful and cautious about that side of things.”

Leigh spent around a decade with legendary trainer Brendan Ingle and it was his advice that made him careful to avoid taking as many blows to the head as possible, particularly during training.

He said: “We didn’t really do head sparring, it was just loads of body sparring.

“I only ever did between 12 and 18 rounds of head sparring before each fight, which is hardly anything.

“Brendan always used to say, ‘Look at Muhammad Ali – he ended up with Parkinson’s and head trauma.’ Ali hardly even got hit in most of his fights but he would spar probably around 12 rounds per day.

“Even now, I’ll never head spar between my camps.

“I’ve taken punishment in some of my fights, but afterwards I always go in hyperbaric chambers, where the oxygen pressure is supposed to be good for brain recovery.

“But at the end of the day, you’re still getting punched in the head so you’ve got to limit that at some point.”